March brings basketball crazieness, quirky weather, and the steady roll out of spring across the U.S. It’s a pretty exciting month.

Educators have spent the last 7 months or so teaching, re-teaching, testing, laughing and crying, in their classrooms, getting ready for spring. This is the time of year when so many things come together after a long and intense autumn and winter.

The children, K through 12, are all 7 months older. A boatload of developmental processes have taken place. The capacity for learning has grown, and things process much more quickly, no matter the grade level.

In short, this is the time of year when everything in school speeds up. In a blink of an eye, this school year will be over. 2011-2012 will be history, in the record book and memory banks of school districts, parents, and children.

The curriculum is weighted more heavily towards a final compilation of what has been learned, and how to apply those lessons, to newer, more involved issues.

Kindergartners are learning more words, practicing reading readiness skills, counting to higher numbers and making and recognizing far more intricate patterns in everything.

The higher grades are reading more involved texts, and applying the math they have learned to this point to more complex problems. Science is leading them to more experiments, and they are plowing through the appropriate history for their grade level.

Middle school 8th graders are looking at leaving the top of the pile to the bigger pool of High School. The High School seniors are simply attempting to get through the last month of any number of wacky, insane issues that are specific to graduating seniors, and sweating which college or trade school they are going to be accepted to. Lots of good-byes, tears and laughter are involved with the seniors.

What this means to families across the nation is that it’s time to pay special attention to all that is going on in your child’s school and education. Your support is more important now than ever.

The new demands that are dictated by the approaching end of the school year are exciting and intense for everyone. Take the time to help your children review what they need to, practice what they know, and stand with them as they enter new territory in the learning world.

Listen to them. They will tell you all you need to know about how they are doing. Sometimes, it’s what they don’t say that is just as important as what they do say.

Blink, and you’ll miss it. It’s that fast.

Stay in contact with their teachers and the school. Remember, assume nothing, verify everything!